New Zealand insurers have won a court bid to prevent personal lines specialist AMI trademarking common insurance terms preceded by the word “my”.

An appeal by AA Insurance, IAG NZ, Tower and Vero followed a ruling in November last year by the Intellectual Property Office allowing AMI to register trademark applications for a list of 16 names, including My Insurance, My Car Insurance, My House Insurance, My Contents Insurance and My Farm Insurance.

The companies maintained that registration of the words would privatise ordinary words that belong in the public domain.

High Court Justice Joseph Williams agreed, finding that using “my” as a prefix to other common insurance terms “does not make distinctive what would otherwise be a descriptive or generic mark”.

He said use of the words “cannot be distinctive to, or monopolised by, one particular trader”, and instructed that only two names, “My freeB series” and “My Multi Quote series”, be referred back to the Intellectual Property Office for further consideration.

An AMI spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au the company believed it had solid grounds for defending the case, but accepted “as a commercial reality” that other insurers would appeal against the use of the words.

In a joint statement, AA Insurance, IAG, Tower and Vero said it was “most unfortunate” the case had to be taken to court.

“However, in order to protect our customers from significant confusion, allow the continuing use of these common descriptive phrases and avoid inadvertent trademark transgressions, we had no option.

“We sincerely hope this is the end of the matter.”

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